WOYZECK

In the organizer's words:

WOYZECK

by Georg Büchner

3 hours 10 minutes
1 intermission

Age recommendation: from 14 years

Georg Büchner's fragile fragment, one of the most important dramas in German literature, is based on the case of the soldier Woyzeck, who stabbed his lover to death and was sentenced to death in 1824. Büchner was familiar with the facts of the historical criminal case, on which legal, medical and psychological reports were written. It depicts a jealous murder and its prehistory: Woyzeck, "good fellow and poor devil", financially pushed to the lowest fringes of society, humiliated by his superiors, turned into an object of study by academia, is at the mercy of his environment's radical lack of empathy. He thus becomes guilty after his fears, urges and desires erupt obscenely. But "Woyzeck" goes far beyond the sad individual case of a maltreated creature. Büchner uses the "subject of Woyzeck" to examine the question of our dependence on social conditions that "lie beyond us", of individual freedom and fateful determination.

"Every human being is an abyss; it makes you dizzy when you look down."

"Woyzeck lives within a social system characterized by brutality to which everyone is subject without knowing it. Those who inflict violence on Woyzeck are themselves caught up in the general context. Büchner's ability to portray the prevailing brutalization as one of language is at the heart of the production. What Woyzeck is left with is blind violence, experienced and practiced." Ulrich Rasche

Ulrich Rasche, well known to Munich audiences since his productions of "Die Räuber" and "Elektra", is considered one of the most extraordinary directors of his generation due to his formally rigorous choral projects and overwhelming stage sets and was invited to the 2018 Berlin Theatertreffen with this production by Theater Basel.

Takeover of the Theater Basel production, sponsored by Theaterverein Basel.

Artistic direction

Production and stage direction Ulrich Rasche
Stage design Sabine Mäder
Costumes Sara Schwartz
Composition and musical direction Monika Roscher
Sound design Alexander Vičar
Choir director Toni Jessen
Lighting Cornelius Hunziker, Tobias Löffler
Dramaturgy Constanze Kargl

Price information:

from 10€ for students